August Wilhelm Poppitz came to the United States with the 1838-1839 immigrants.  He was eighteen years old when he arrived.  By the time that 1858 rolled around,  August had married three times, fathered numerous children, and died.  The Ernst Poppitz I wrote about recently was from August’s first wife, Justina Schmidt.  The Martin Poppitz I am writing about today was from his second wife, Johanna Caroline Kuehn.  His third wife was Caroline Metzner.  All three wives blessed him with at least one child.

Martin Poppitz would be celebrating a wedding anniversary today.  He married Emma Weinhold on May 3, 1881 at Concordia Lutheran Church in Frohna, Missouri.  Here is a record of that marriage.

Martin had been a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Altenburg, but after his marriage to Emma, who was a member in Frohna, Martin switched over to Concordia.  When they started having children, they were baptized in Frohna.

Emma was the daughter of Wilhelm and Emilie (Lindner) Weinhold.  Emma and her family arrived in America around 1860, and her father was a farmer.

Here is a wedding photo of Martin and Emma.

I enjoy seeing how Emma is holding Martin’s hand in this photo.  I can’t recall seeing too many German Lutheran wedding photos where the couple are holding hands.  Most have a hand on a shoulder or the woman loosely holding the groom’s elbow……or most likely, not touching each other at all.  It’s apparently no small task to just get a bride and groom to stand close to one another.

Martin was a farmer on some land which was located north of Frohna and east of Brazeau.  You can see it on this map.

Two other of his neighbors have been highlighted in previous stories, both of which were associated with the Tri-State Tornado of 1925.  Claus Stueve and Elmer Schaupert both experienced great losses as a result of that tornado.  I do not know if the tornado did damage to Martin’s farm, but even if that tornado did not cause damage, it certainly must have been a very frightening experience for them.

I have been told that the folks in this photo are the Martin and Emma Poppitz family.

It is also stated that this is a home in Seelitz.  I am not so sure of that.  Martin and Emma did not live in Seelitz.  It may be the home in Seelitz where Martin grew up.  I really like photos like this.  Even though the people may be hard to identify, the photo gives a much broader view of the property and gives you a little more feel for what life must have been like back in those days.  It’s also another one of those photographs which has been photobombed by a dog.

The Poppitzes had four children who lived into adulthood.  Emma died in 1929; Martin died in 1940.  Martin’s father had died at the age of 37.  Martin more than doubled him in age, living until he was 84 years old.